A network consists of nodes and links. Nodes and links which are subject to network management can be referred to as Network Elements (NEs). A large communication network can consist of hundreds of thousands of such NEs for the purpose of transporting information or services amongst the users or subscribers of the network.
Referring to FIG. 1, this exemplary network management network 100 is a three-level hierarchical network management system. The use of such multiple level management hierarchy has been internationally standardized by standardization groups such as 3GPP TS 32.101 “Telecommunication management”. The objective of such management hierarchy is to allow the Network Management System (NMS) 101 to manage the network elements (NEs) 109a-109g and the functions running inside the NEs via a Domain Manager (DM) 102 such that all NMS management commands (e.g. a command to shut down a particular NE) are sent from the NMS 101 to the DM 102 who in turn would send the commands to the NEs 109a-109g. 
The NMS 101 does not have direct connections or interactions with the NEs 109a-109g. The NMS 101 interacts with the DM 102 via a standard interface 103. The DM 102, on behalf of NMS 101, manages the NEs 109a-109g often using proprietary interface(s) 108. A single NMS can interact with a number of DMs, and likewise, a DM may receive instructions from multiple NMSs.
The DM 102 holds, or can access, a Managed Information Base (MIB) 105 that is a stored representation of the NEs 109a-109g under management. In this MIB 105, each managed NE 109a-109g is represented by a software object called an Information Object Class (IOC) instance, or can also be referred to as a Managed Object. A Managed Object (MO) is a software object that can encapsulate the manageable characteristics and behaviour of a particular network resource. The quality of the DM 102 is largely measured by the accuracy and the timeliness of the information captured in the IOC instances reflecting the conditions and status of the deployed NEs.
Similarly, the NMS 101 holds, or can access, its own MIB 104 that is a copy of the DM MIB 105.
The NE configuration data and status are represented in the corresponding IOC instances in the DM MIB 105. In addition, these IOC instances are organized into a name-hierarchy or name tree according to rule and convention as may be specified in international standard such as 3GPP TS 32.300 Configuration Management, Name convention for Managed Objects. In this scheme, one IOC instance represents one NE under management. Each IOC instance has a unique name called a “Distinguished Name”. The number of NEs 109a-109g under management is equal to the number of IOC instances in the DM MIB 105.
An IOC instance, in the parlance of object oriented language, is the instance of a class. Organizations such as 3GPP have defined such classes for mobile network management. The standard organizations publish the class definitions periodically to handle the addition of new class definitions or to handle enhancement of existing class definitions. The standard organizations typically assign a unique identifier for each publication, called a publication identification or a publication identifier.
Each IOC instance, or Managed Object, represents a real network resource in a mobile network that can be managed, e.g. a base station or a radio cell which can be created, configured, read and updated throughout their lifetime until they are deleted.
An implementation of an object-oriented information model, such as a Telecommunications Operations Support System, will have a large containment tree of all instantiated Managed Objects contained by the “root” instance or by one of the Managed Objects contained by the “root” instance or further down the containment hierarchy. This containment tree is a structured way of representing the data that can be accessed through an interface. Containment is herein in the first place meant as “name-containment” as defined in 3GPP TS 32.152, building up a structured tree-like hierarchy in arbitrary number of levels by means of the <<names>> relationship. This enables unique identification of each Managed Object by means of its Distinguished Name. This hierarchical tree of all instances, from the root instance, including all directly or indirectly contained Managed Objects, down to all “leaves”, is referred to as the MIB. A Managed Object instance that contains another one is referred to as the superior (e.g. the parent), whereas the contained Managed Object instance is referred to as the subordinate or inferior (e.g. the child). The MIB is made up of instances of classes which define the relevant published standard specification(s) for each Managed Object.
In a network that has been in operation for years, it is typical for NEs of the same kind or type (i.e. NEs that are radio base stations) to not use the same class definition. Similar NEs may use class definitions defined by different publications or versions by the standard organization. For example, two radio base stations can be represented by two IOC instances and their class definitions may be different in that one class definition of radio base station is published in 2001 and the other class is published in 2002.
In order for meaningful communication between the NMS 101 and the DM 102, it is important that the NMS 101 knows the Distinguished Name for all IOC instances stored in the DM MIB 105 and the class definitions used by the DM 102 for the IOC instances in the DM MIB 105. Otherwise, network management problems or errors can occur if the NMS 101 and DM 102 are using IOC definitions of different standard versions (e.g. different publication identifiers) for the same IOC instance.